Contempt notices to Nagpur varsity VC, registrar for making false statements in HC

The Nagpur bench of Bombay high court on Tuesday issued contempt notices to the vice chancellor of Nagpur University, Dr Vilas Sapkal and its registrar Mahesh Kumar Yenki, for making false statement before the court.

Filing a petition before the high court, Sunil Mishra, the petitioner had pointed out that the university officials failed to take an appropriate action against the management of a college that was encouraging mass copying during the annual examination and sought stern action against concerned officials of the college.

Mishra had visited as a member of the University’s vigilance squad to one Sant Gadgebaba College at Hingna in Nagpur district a few years ago found that mass copying was going on at the examination centre. When Mishra and others insisted action against the students who were involved in mass copying, the principal of the college was unwilling to take any action and instead they attacked Mishra and his team and ill-treated them at the college campus.

The issue was brought before the university officials and subsequently and an inquiry committee was set up to probe the matter. The one-man enquiry committee probed the matter and submitted a report to the controller of the examination, Nagpur University in 2006 and recommended to take appropriate action against the college authorities. However, the university did not act on the report. This led to file a writ petition before the high court by Mishra in 2010.

During the hearing of the said case on January 21, 2011, a statement was made on behalf of the university that a fine of sum of Rs 25,000 was imposed on the said management and on the basis of that statement, Mishra’s petition was disposed off.

However, in reply to an application under the RTI act recently, Mishra has received the information that fine of Rs 25,000 was not recovered from the college which it was directed to pay in four weeks. Till now it is not clear whether the said amount has been recovered or not.

According to the petitioner, letter of imposing fine was issued only after the High Court had passed the order on January 22 last year. “So, it can be concluded that the university prepared all documents relating to the fine after passing of the order in the High Court,” the petitioner alleged.

While issuing the contempt notices, a division bench of the court, comprising Justice Pratap Hardas and Justice ML Tahaliyani directed the university officials to reply the contempt notices within the next three weeks.